Victory and Sky Blues share points

Possession might be the buzzword of modern football but Sydney FC Frank Farina reckons the stat might just be the most overrated aspect of the game.

The Sky Blues were again outmuscled on the possession count in Saturday night’s 1-1 draw against Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park, having 43.5 per cent of the ball.

The week before, they managed just 38.3 per cent against Adelaide and cobbled barely 36.3 per cent against Brisbane Roar seven days prior. In fact, according to Opta’s stats, the last time the Sky Blues won the possession count was way back in January against Melbourne Heart, a side reduced to 10 men before half-time.

But Farina is no believer in the mantra that possession is king, preferring his sides to sit back, play direct and counter-attacking, hoping they can score when then opposition is caught off-guard. He’s also confident smart defending can obstruct the benefits of possession.

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“Possession is great but it’s purely and simply a stat. If you’re not doing a lot with that possession [it’s meaningless], and I didn’t feel they [Victory] created a lot of chances that really had me on the edge of my seat,” Farina said. “I coached down here last year and it was the opposite. They were creating chances, scoring goals and we were battling to keep them out. I thought [on Saturday night] they had a lot of possession but we starved them of space, in behind us and through the middle.”

However, Farina may have some explaining to do to his bosses if they are true to their mission statement.

Earlier this season chief executive Tony Pignata wrote a letter to Sydney fans – who have expressly demanded a possession-and-passing based game – in which he detailed the club’s stylistic ambition.

“The philosophy is to deliver a dominating pro-active style of football, based on possession of the ball in the attack, aggressive pressing in defence and speed in transition moments,” Pignata said. “Being pro-active means that we will not change our domineering football style. We will initiate and control the tempo of the game through the patient build-up and immediate pressure after losing possession.”

While they haven’t won in their past three matches, Farina reckons his side has been playing well enough recently to justify his belief they will make the finals. Home games against Wellington and Perth should – given those sides appear out of the finals race – lead to maximum points.

“We’ve picked up some decent results in the past four to five weeks but now we’ve got to finish it off with these two games at home,” he said. “The Adelaide game I wasn’t really that pleased but against Victory I thought, in patches, we played very well.

“For all those teams fighting for spots, there’s always more pressure during the run-in than there is at the beginning.”

Farina praised Joel Chianese upon his return to the starting side on Saturday night and said there was still hope injured Serbian forward Ranko Despotovic could be spotted if the side makes the finals.

“For his first game back [starting], I was pretty pleased with him. I thought he worked hard and was a little bit rusty, but you expect that,” Farina said. “Ranko has been a loss for us from up front but there is a chance he may feature if we are to go that far.”

Though the Sky Blues have long been criticised for being porous defensively, Farina appears to have found a back four – built around Sasa Ognenovski – which looks harder to break down.

“They’ve been pretty good for us. We’ve had a settled back four for probably the past four or five games,” he said. “We conceded three in Adelaide but I don’t put any blame on the back four. That was collective more than anything. But it’s nice to have a settled defensive four, which, in my 14 months here, we haven’t really had.”

11 comments so far

So Frank knows better than those in charge of Barcelona, Arsenal, etc in Europe and those ahead of FC on the table - Brisbane, Adelaide, Victory. Also, isn't his assistant, Rado Vidosic, a huge advocate of possession based football??

There is a reason why not even FC members like watching Sydney play. Adios Frank.

Commenter

Bren

Location

Sydney

Date and time

March 30, 2014, 8:55PM

Well that explains a lot. Now when I see Sydney consistently lose the ball after 2 or 3 passes, I won't be upset, because they're playing as instructed! I was always taught that if your team has the ball, the other team won't score. It's just common sense really. Possession overrated? Please. And if you going to be a counter attacking team, I don't suppose technical quality is required either? And if you're going to counter attack, it doesn't matter that the first 3 passes (before you lose it) are either backwards or sideways?

Commenter

Jim S

Location

Crows Nest

Date and time

March 30, 2014, 9:52PM

Rather than Farina having some explaining to do to his bosses, I would say that his bosses have some explaining to do to the fans. how is that they could give a 2 year deal to a coach who has never before demonstrated a commitment to the articulated playing philosophy of sydney fc, shows no commitment to it in his first season and now openly derides the clubs playing philosophy. ???? No wonder the fans are frustrated, the players are frustrated , and the club has gone nowhere. It's not farina's fault, any football fan who has been paying attention knows what farina cares for, but how did he ever get to be coach of syd fc??? Tony??

Commenter

Nil all

Date and time

March 30, 2014, 11:38PM

Farina's remarks say more about his coaching ability than the fact that possession is over rated.

If Farina wants an example of why possession football works he has only to look to the examples sat by the Roar and Adelaide here, and Barcelona in Europe. Perhaps the best example is Liverpool who went from playing very basic football under several managers and turning everything on its head over the past 18 months using possession football under Brendan Rodgers.

My advice to Frank would be to go learn how its done rather than bury his head in the sand.

Commenter

PJC

Location

Brisbane

Date and time

March 31, 2014, 7:45AM

Time to make this dinosaur extinct.

Commenter

Greg

Location

Sydney

Date and time

March 31, 2014, 8:18AM

The fact remains that for all the spin and attempted justification of Sydney's style of play they are boring to watch. It's also apparent that the Board won't do anything to address this problem whilst attendance figures remain resonable so my guess is that we can 'look forward' to a couple more seasons of decline before anything serious is done about it. If only Adelaide's Gombau had an identical twin brother.............

Commenter

Magnus

Location

Abbotsford

Date and time

March 31, 2014, 9:19AM

I thought I was missing something in my football eductaion - let the opposition have the ball and wait for an own goal. How obvious! As it worked for Crystal palace on the weekend, who are we mere mortals to question the genious that is Farina? The sooner he is gone the better.

Commenter

John S

Location

Pyrmont

Date and time

March 31, 2014, 9:53AM

You would hope as a fan that Farina's comments are just a deflection for his players who continually turn over possession with poor passing because smart defending is definitely not a feature of Sydney FC's game. When they do have possession they do not look threatening and they definitely don't have this brilliant counter attack Farina speaks of given the slow men up front in the forwards. Sydney FC's attacking style is limited to milking the penalty and trying to slot one in, it's hardly inspiring football that will draw in the masses.

Possession is not only about what you are doing but what the other team aren't doing which is scoring goals. If you have less than 40% possession against a quality team it would be near impossible to win a match given that you're spending over 60% of the match chasing the ball.